Sucre

1781 · 0000533 — Paris: Chez Clousier 1781. First edition. Binding rubbed & scuffed shallow losses at spine extremities joints cracking free endpapers excised text lightly toned & occasionally foxed lacking the folding plate about Good & still quite serviceable. 8vo 8" x 5" viii 1 & 4-512 with tables occasional woodcut illustrations and woodcut headpieces throughout. LACKING THE FOLDING PLATE. Publisher's full calf the spine decorated in gilt with a gilt-lettered maroon morocco spine label. Text in French. <br/><br/>In the Preface Casaux describes his credentials on the subject of growing sugarcane: born in France in 1727 he migrated to the then-French island of Grenada in 1757; he remained there and took English citizenship after the Treaty of Paris ceded the island to the British in 1763 serving George III as Deputy for the French population of the colony until his return to Europe in 1777. He joined the Royal Society there in 1780 and was also a member of the Academy of Agriculture in Florence. During his years in the Caribbean he interested himself in the cultivation of sugarcane; he became especially concerned with methods for producing the same amount of sugar with many fewer “Negres†and “treating them more gently.†Casaux additionally writes of methods to produce quality sugar from inferior grades of cane and maintaining equal quantity and quality of sugar from “exhausted†plots of land. Casaux leaves no aspect of growing cane and extracting the sugar untouched; much can be learned about colonial plantation practices regarding not only sugar but agriculture in general. He includes a history of sugar and discusses “new†species of cane hybrids formed from crossbreeding; he also includes a table of rainfall for Grenada for the year 1773 and advises the use of such tables “to be kept by public appointment for the improvement of agriculture†elsewhere. Casaux was an influential thinker on subjects other than agriculture including politics economics and social issues and was a member of the Jacobin Club; after Mirabeau’s death in 1792 he moved from France to London and died there in 1796. Chez Clousier, unknown books